Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/153

LEIBNITZ AS A LIBRARIAN. 141 tendency to develop a range of knowledge that was almost encyclopaedic in charadler his special sub- je<5ts being history, classics, logic and philosophy. His first printed treatise, ' De Principio Individui,' was written at the age of seventeen. He sustained a disappointment at Leipzig University, as the degree of Dodlor of Laws for which he applied in his twentieth year, in order to enable him to start practice in the legal profession, was refused him for the time being in order to accommodate other candidates. He became annoyed and displeased, left Leipzig and took his degree in law at Altdorf. Although his knowledge of the law was pro- found, Leibnitz does not ever appear to have practised it as an advocate, his authorship of works of jurisprudence notwithstanding. In later days, however, he received an important judicial ap- pointment. His early career is said to have been desultory, but this was not really the case, as he began to fit himself for the official post he was afterwards to occupy from quite the early years of his life. In the ' Elogium ' pronounced upon Leibnitz soon after his death 1 there are a few references to his a6tivity, during the tenure of his librarianship, in taking measures to enrich the colleflion under his care and to his general ability in the discharge of his duties. But our principal source of in- formation is Dr. Guhrauer's article ' Bibliothekar- isches aus Leibnitzens Leben und Schriften,' 2 written upwards of sixty years ago. The fafts 1 * A6la Eruditorum,' Lipsiae, 1716, pp. 322-6. 2 'Serapeum,' Leipzig, 1851, xii, pp. 1-30, 33-42.